AFTER THE CREDITS Let That Be Your Last Battlefiel
by Ster J
Summary: Spock has a sudden insight into Cheron's deepseated prejudice.


Title: AFTER THE CREDITS--Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

Author: Ster Julie

Codes: Spock, Kirk

Rating: PG

Part 1/1

Summary: Spock has a sudden insight into Cheron's deep-seated prejudice.

--ooOoo--

Spock was preparing for bed after a fruitless time in meditation. He had pondered the fate of Lokai and Bele's people, all of them destroyed by hatred. Each of them had white coloration on one side of their body and black on the other, only the sides were reversed in the two races. Bele's people were seen as superior because their dark coloration was on the right side, whereas Lokai's people were white on the right side and suffered oppression.

There was no logic to their hatred of each other, Spock thought. He had tried for over an hour to come to some understanding of how one race could hate another so deeply so as to desire the extermination of the other. Their people had walked the same path his Vulcan ancestors had 5,000 years prior, but the people of Cheron did not have the benefit of a Surak, of a lone voice pleading for peace.

Or if they had, that person was ignored, resulting in the total annihilation of the people and planet of Cheron.

Spock finished washing and drying his face, and it was as he raised his head and espied his reflection above the sink that the answer came to him.

"Mirror images," he mused aloud. "Lokai and Bele were mirror images." Spock studied his own face in the mirror. It _had_ to be more than just pigmentation that was the cause of their great hatred. What did they see reflected in the other's face that made them crazed with such great loathing?

Spock looked again at his reflection and studied it. What did he dislike about his own appearance? There were several small scars scattered across his skin, and his lower teeth were not perfectly aligned, but none of those things evoked any emotion in him.

Spock knew what it was. He disliked when his Human "side" showed. Spock did not want to appear weak or vulnerable before others, so he kept strict custody of his facial expressions. When he looked into the mirror, it was to be certain that his stony, Vulcan mask was firmly in place.

Spock wondered if Kirk ever saw his "good" side or his "evil" side manifested in his reflection . . .

The Vulcan shook his head to clear himself of that distracting thought and returned to his earlier reflection. When Spock looked into the mirror, he saw his human side firmly caged. His meditations helped to keep that savage part of him at bay.

Now, _that_ thought evoked something in him. He forced himself to remember that he inherited more than just savagery from his mother. Lady Amanda was far from savage, and his Vulcan heritage was littered with far more savagery.. Spock made himself remember that the dark parts of _both_ sides of him were what he needed to contain. His meditations continued until he heard a polite knock at the bathroom door.

"Spock?" Kirk called. "Is everything all right in there?"

Spock had lost track of time! He quickly stowed his things and released the door to allow Kirk access to their shared lavatory.

"Forgive me, Captain," he apologized. "I had a sudden insight into the plight of the Cheronians and did not realize the amount of time . . . "

"What insight?" Kirk interrupted.

Spock steered his captain to the tiny mirror above the sink.

"In coloration, Lokai and Bele were mirror images of each other," he s explained. "Instead of seeing their own image in the mirror, they saw the face of their enemy. It made me wonder what I really saw when I looked in the mirror. Did I see my face, or did I see the face of my hidden self?"

Kirk looked sharply at Spock, then at the mirror. He grew very quiet.

Spock knew that Kirk was thinking back to earlier in their five-year mission when he was split into his two very different sides. He slipped back quietly into his own quarters to give Kirk some privacy.

Kirk leaned his hands on the sink as he continued to stare down his image.

"Damn," he breathed. "He _had_ to bring that up!"

END


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